Awesome!

Call me a wimp, but my 'training' has been somewhat hampered by an injury.  With an accuracy that would be the envy of an Olympic marksman, I managed to pour boiling water down my left leg on Friday night and scald my shin rather spectacularly.  So rather than run on trails where it risked being thwacked by a bramble, Wee Gill and I headed for 14 Locks in Newport - a decent compacted track without brambles that goes past, um, 14 locks.  Or they were locks once - now they're being renovated.  Just after we'd started Wee Gill gave me a choice - left or right.

I chose left.

"Ah, uphill then".  Now, to be fair, she hadn't said 'Left and hilly or right and flat' so I only had myself to blame...  And it was pretty uphill.  We ran past various locks in various stages of renovation - really pretty with the dappled sunlight coming through the trees...

And at the point where we turned round there was even an obstacle...

And it only took Wee Gill 5 attempts to capture me in mid-air.  

After our run we had coffee back at Wee Gill's house sitting outside in the sunshine - probably the first time this summer that we could - isn't it lovely?

Today the Melodeon Master and I went for a relatively easy MTB ride - the sort where I didn't risk banging my pedal into my shin.  It was our wedding anniversary yesterday which, thanks to lots of lovely people who reminded us, we actually remembered for only the second time in 6 years.  The Melodeon Master planned to wake up and say 'Happy Anniversary' but instead, and entirely due to the positioning of a rather stupid Tonkinese, said 'Cat Bum' instead.  But, hey, at least we remembered.  So today, just a day late, we set off for a ploughman's lunch in a local village.  They only did 'Full Sunday Lunches' so we had crisps and Nobby's Nuts instead.  To our huge surprise and probably because it's frequented by lots of bikers using the trails locally, they also did isotonic drinks.  Served in wine glasses and tasting remarkably like a chilled Pinot Grigio, but apparently positively isotonic.

Must have been something in it because I definitely went faster on the way home...

And so to The Achievement Of The Week.

Bradley Wiggins.  First ever British winner of the Tour de France. Three thousand, four hundred and ninety seven kilometres in total style and with manners, wit and charm.  AND he can give interviews in French...

Now that IS awesome!